FIRST FLOWERS OF MID SUMMER 2015

Sally & Muddy - white coneflower - Echinacea purprea 'White Swan'?

No, Echinacea purpurea 'Pow Wow White'.

I dunno. E purpureum ' From a friend'

I'm not sure mine survived the winter. I wish I could say I remembered exactly where I planted it!

I have gathered a bunch of dead seed-heads from white Cone Flowers
at the HD, Didn't think I liked them-but I do.

I will let the seed-heads dry--and then collect seeds. There I go again!!!!!!!!

Just FYI--
My daughter has safely. arrived today from her trip cross country (5 days) ! WOW!

Glad to hear that! Much relieved.....Now they have to take the time
to settle in and unpack.
Hope her dog and Kitties will settle in as well.

Whew.....................Gita

Fantastic! Glad to hear it.

Cross country is nice , lots can happen , like everything ,

Coneflowers , The white a Milkshake that does not bloom double ;
White Swan is there also , not shown, others good old Purples ,,

They're lovely!

Thank you Muddy1 Nice thing about Coneflowers , they grow anywhere , if not potting soil and a pot and let them root into the ground , it takes a little longer that way , If you enjoy them it is worth doing ,
There is Pink Poodle Seedling also ,
I lost my Pow wow starts ,, we'll try that again later ,,

Sally, were you a coneflower hater? I like coneflower but they don't do the best for me. I think all the ones I've gotten, at least for the front yard garden, aren't aggressive enough to compete in that sort of environment. I do have one that grows well but I suspect it has aster yellows so it will be removed at the end of the season.

Au contraire, I admire coneflowers, but way back when I bought one, a bunny ate all it.
8^(

That and lack of sun made me backburner Coneflowers.
(Oh yeah, need to show you my yellowing Phlox and see what you think. )

Rick Webb has a post on the MAG that shows coneflowers growing in only a few hours of sun then bright shade. I might give that a whack. I would really like to find a coneflower that spreads on its own rather than stay in a neat and tidy bunch. What's up with your yellowing phlox? Is it sick?

I posted my phlox question somewhere (Perennials forum?) and needed to follow up with photo. Yellowing, then browning, from the ground up, stem by stem. Everything else in the bed looks healthy. If this phlox needs to come out, due to disease...maybe I shouldn't immediately plant a new plant there either.

Oh LOL...I even responded to that one too. What a goof I am. My brain needs an upgrade for sure. Does it have powdery mildew?

Your brain?

Yes, I forget everything that's important and only remember stupid things like what my coworkers wore to work yesterday.

hahaha

Pretty sure my Phlox is not mildewed, not sure about Seq's brain...Pix of Phlox are on Phone ... to Post Plus tard

Sally, I hope it's not powdery mildew! :(
Seq, I hope your brain doesn't have powdery mildew too! < =P
While we wait for Sally's plus tard (???)... here's a shot of all the happy coneflowers in the bed along my driveway (aka: the driveway side bed, heh). The soil is really horrible, lots of sand, clay, and rocks. They get FULL sun, I rarely water over there, and for some reason they seem to love it. Started with 3 plants, now I have more than I can count. =)

Thought I would show you all the current size of my Amaranth-

I am 5'7" tall with long arms. (great hugs!)
When I stand right next to this plant and raise my arm all the way up--
right now we are even. But--it is still growing...and growing...
The flower at the top will also stick up soon--adding to the height.

The trunk at the bottom is the size of the white part of a leek.

I have to find someone to take a picture of me and the plant.

All this from ONE tiny seed--just a hair bigger than the period on this Post.....

2--My Cukes are climbing up my shed!! Picked a big one right near the top today.
it was hiding...so it grew a bit bigger than I would have wanted it to.

3--Brazilian Plume flower. This is the mama plant.

Oh good, Gita, you'll be able to make pickles for the swap! Yum....

Sally, my Phlox 'David' has had the diseased look you describe every year for the past decade, and Felicia's Phlox got it this year, but it seems to only be aesthetic and hasn't proven to be communicable, so I generally either ignore it, cut back the offending stalks knowing that healthy stems will emerge, or spray with organic disease control substances.

'David' is in a far less-than-ideal spot for a Phlox; he only gets direct sun from about 2 p.m. on. 'Felicia' gets much more sun, but I think she found this year too rainy for her liking : - )

As I was spreading mulch around today, I spotted 2 little Echinacea purpurea 'Powwow White' plants growing from seeds I sowed. They're only about 6" tall, though, so I doubt I'll see blooms this year.

Muddy, I swear I'll post my pictures if you care to look. The whole plant of purple phlox is crispy fried death at this point. The crispy Phlox are in the 'ideal' spot for sun. My Felicia's is in a '2 pm and after sun' place like your David, my Felicia looks bigger this year than ever and quite healthy.

Gita, that Brazilian Plume is gorgeous, very healthy too !

The Phlox "David" I'm getting at the swap is going in a bed on the west side (front) of my house, near the foundation. So it will only get sun from about 2:00, on. Is that a bad place for it ?

Sure, I'll be glad to take a look, Sally.

CAM, I would say it's less than ideal. It'll bloom, but based on my experience it will be more prone to disease and won't be as full. I have thought about moving my Phlox 'David' now that I have sunnier areas in my yard so that it can look as gorgeous as the ones in photos I see in others' posts.

Might have to get some taller flowers to put behind it and not plant it so close to the foundation to get it more sun along with some more air flow. Thanks, Muddy.

Sounds like a good plan. You're welcome!

Here is my Phlox David". It is in my S. bed and gets good sun around 2PM as well.

I only had one stem of it last summer--but it was smack in front of the other Phlox.
So--I dug it up and moved it besides it and a bit to the back.
It IS pretty close to the house foundation.
Seems to have grown 2 more stems--so....doing well.

My Felicia's Phlox is almost done blooming. Maybe I should cut it back and
let it grow back some? I think it may put out some more bloom if I did that.

Do any of you cut your Phlox back? G.

I deadhead my Phlox and cut dead stalks to the ground, but I don't pinch it back if that's what you mean.

Muddy--
What I meant was--cutting back the bloomed out tops to encourage
new growth to come. Whether these will bloom again this fall--i do not know.

Otherwise--I allow them all to dry and go to seed---and then I collect some seed
from all the Phlox. Will I ever use it? probably not. But--I am an obsessive seed collector...

G.

PS---
Here is a cluster of bloomed-out Phlox heads.

See the seeds?

"See the seeds?"

ROFL phlox seeds are pretty teeny!

I'm not good about deadheading, so I can't answer with certainty, but I'm sure my MIL deadheads faithfully, and her phlox (Felicia's) continues to bloom sporadically all summer.. I've even seen blooms at the end of September. I think I've mentioned that Felicia's phlox in my MIL's yard is in partial shade, getting short glimpses of sunshine at best. It's not a big plant there, putting up 2 or 3 stems at a time and getting maybe 3 feet tall. But it's a survivor!

Sally, have you checked the roots on your "crispy fried death" phlox? wondering if a vole has been munching on it...

Gita, I got some Phlox that was forced to bloom in Feb for a flower show. When I brought them home I cut all of them back when they were done blooming, just like you are talking about and they all bloomed again. I wasn't sure if they would bloom after being forced like that. I couldn't say that they will bloom again this late but they could.

Jill--

The beige pods in the picture above hold 1 or 2 dark seeds. They are this big -- "0"
the outer coating (what you see above) is pretty hard and one has
to wait for it to dry completely. Then you can squeeze them to remove the seed--
or--I believe--they actually pop open spitting out the seed.
I could never understand why there were Phlox seeds all over my DR table?
Then I came to this conclusion. Nothing else explained it.

I went to look for the Phlox seeds I saved to take a picture--but could not find them.
Anyway......Not worth the effort...... g.

Very cool Gita; even after all the 'deadheading with a purpose' I've done at work I never realized that about Phlox seeds or their 'pods', nor was I ever able to recognize them. Thank you! I do love learning new plant things! :)

I have 5 different Phlox--in different stages of "done with blooming"....

Come to think about it--I have cut them back and they have re-grown
and produced some latter blooms.

Geez! Tomorrow is August already!!!! I have a couple pictures.....

1--The August Lily Hosta starting to bloom....DAH!

2--Cardinal Flower in my A/C bed

3--Pretty HB's at HD.

4--My beautiful roses are getting all eaten up! Hate it!

5--Lastly--my Giant Purple Amaranth now standing at 90" in the setting sun.
That is>7' 5". I don't think it is done yet.....

These popped up in the last three days:

OOH! Nice!! Where are mine?? I haven't had bloom in years.

Perhaps your Naked Ladies are too embarrassed to show themselves!